Computers are useful for creation and exchange of information between users. Often, the information or “content” generated may be confidential, to either an individual or group. In such instances it is desirable to protect the content and develop a policy regarding who can use the content, in what ways and with what conditions. Content other than confidential information can be protected by a policy as well.
Different solutions to protecting data have been implemented. For instance, an individual or an organization can have a manually implemented policy wherein each user manually makes a determination of the content that is created, and protects the content. An example of manually protecting the content would be storing a disk containing the content in a locking storage location. Another example would be a user sending an email to a second user along with an associated message asking the second user to keep the content secure.
Other security solutions exist such as having directories and drives password protected. The access to the drives can be limited to individual users or groups and typically, the content on the drives can have limits such as read only specific to each user or group. Individual files may be password protected as well. For instance, a user may determine that a file is confidential and the user can protect the file with a password before saving or transmitting it.
In some environments, a usage policy may be used to secure content. In such an environment, a publishing user can determine that the content needs to be protected and then associate a usage policy with the protected information. The usage policy is an electronic document containing content required to read the document and describes who can use the content and in what ways. In order to access the document, a user can contact a license server supply the usage policy and an identification of the user, and in return receiving a usage license, thereby allowing the user to access the information.